Football legend scouting Socceroos job

JURGEN Klinsmann has commissioned one of his closest friends to scouting the possibility of being Socceroos coach at next year's FIFA World Cup in Russia.

The 1990 West German World Cup winner has shown keen interest in being the ideal mentor for Australia.

But the sticking point could be Klinsmann's potential salary.

It's understood Football Federation Australia has put aside about $1.5 million per annum for a Socceroos boss while the German legend was earning a reported $3.3 million annual base salary during his five-year stint as boss of the US.

Sources told The Advertiser Klinsmann, 53, made the inquiry after Ange Postecoglou unsurprisingly stepped down from the post last week after guiding Australia to its fourth consecutive World Cup following its 3-0 aggregate win over Honduras in an intercontinental play off.

One of Klinsmann's very good friends who also works closely with him in the game put in a phone call to a former Socceroo quizzing him about the quality of the A-League, the strength of the national team and the likelihood of Australia being competitive at the World Cup in Russia.

Klinsmann has according to sources likened the Australian gig to what he had been used to with the US national team.

Jurgen Klinsman is a German football legend.

The German is understood to be very keen to lead the Socceroos given Australia has a very similar sports landscape to the US where the game isn't the No. 1 sport in terms of popularity for TV ratings among other mediums.

The National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League are in front of Major League Soccer in the popularity stakes.

After guiding Germany to third place at their home World Cup in 2006 where Italy won the crown Klinsmann coached Bayern Munich in 2008 before winning the US job in 2011.

He was in charge of the national team for 98 matches winning 55 games, losing 28 times between leading the US to the round-of-16 at the Brazil World Cup in 2014.

He was sacked from the job in November 2016 after a string of disappointing results before the US incredibly failed to reach its seventh consecutive World Cup under former boss Bruce Arena this year.